Dad, sons profiled by People for cancer battle

Friday

Apr 14, 2017 at 2:44 PMApr 14, 2017 at 2:46 PM

By Mark Price The Charlotte Observer (TNS)

CHARLOTTE — A North Carolina father and his two sons — one of them a UNC Charlotte student — are featured in People magazine this week talking about the challenge of facing the same debilitating pancreatic cancer.

Brothers Preston and Parker Jackson and their father, Wayne Jackson, were all diagnosed with the condition over a two-year period, it was reported.

The trio now visit the same doctors, compare symptoms and talk about the way they are dealing with the cancer, People reports.

“I feel guilty,” Wayne, 46, told People. “I know it’s not my fault, because I had no idea I had this condition until a few years ago, but to see the boys suffering and going through the same things I do — I feel a sense of guilt. When I’m by myself and I think about it, it hurts.”

Wayne was diagnosed with the hereditary condition in 2014 and doctors found 12 cancerous pancreatic tumors in his body, People reported. Preston and Parker tested positive in 2016, and both were found to each have two tumors on their respective pancreases, it was reported.

Parker, 18, is a senior at Chase High School in Forest City in Rutherford County and Preston, 21, is a senior business major at UNC Charlotte, it was reported. The Observer’s news partner WBTV reports Parker hopes to start at Wingate University in the fall.

The brothers fly to Houston every few months to visit specialists crafting a treatment plan, accompanied by their father, it was reported.

“It’s inevitable they will need surgery, but it’s so high risk, they are trying to hold off until it’s absolutely necessary,” Preston and Parker’s mother, Sharon Sechriest, told People. “And with this condition, they will go through many surgeries in their lifetime.”